Movies

Rumor: Nightwatch Could Appear In 'Spider-Man: Homecoming'

Spider-Man: Homecoming Nightwatch rumor
By Peter Sciretta

Filming of Spider-Man: Homecoming has moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Peter Parker's hometown of Queens, New York, and some great set photos have found their way online teasing the arrival of Tony Stark himself (Robert Downey Jr). Meanwhile, a new rumor claims that the film might feature yet another previously unreported villain — Nightwatch. Hit the jump to see the photos and learn about the Spider-Man: Homecoming Nightwatch rumor.

Spider-Man: Homecoming Nightwatch Rumor

nightwatch

In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter Parker will come face to face with Vulture, played by winged comic book movie veteran Michael Keaton. We've also heard that there will be a couple of other villains in the film, Bokeem Woodbine is reportedly playing Shocker while Michael Chernus has been linked as The Tinkerer. That's already a trio of bad guys, which is probably too much for my tastes (see Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3). But it seems Marvel Studios can handle multiple villain storylines better than most.

Now a new report suggests that Spider-Man: Homecoming could feature a fourth adversary for Peter Parker's web slinger. According to a report from Bleeding Cool, Sony employees have begun taking a huge interest in Nightwatch, "buying up any and all comic books that feature the character." As the site notes, this kind of behavior in the past has "usually indicated that a character is planned for an upcoming movie and all the employees want to know everything they can about them, ahead of meetings, discussions, plans and merchandising strategies." This might seem a little slim, but I also remember rumors of this sort panning out in the past.

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Who is Nightwatch?

Some of you right now might be asking yourselves, "Who is Nightwatch?" Like the other villains in this sixth Spider-Man feature, Nightwatch isn't a character that has been featured previously. The Spider-man movies thus far have mainly focused on Peter Parker's struggles with some of the heroes' more iconic villains: Norman and Harry Osborn, Venom, Sandman, Electro, Doc Oc, and Lizard. It seems to follow the Marvel Studios plan of presenting a very different Spider-Man adventure than audiences have seen before.

But to answer your question: Nightwatch first appeared in Web of Spider-Man #99 published in April 1993, less than a year after Todd McFarlane's Spawn with some fans noting similarities from the character's costume, cloak, and self-repair abilities. He appeared mostly during the 1990's in various Spider-Man stories and had a short-lived, self-titled series.

The character originated as Doctor Kevin Trench, who witnessed a costumed man die in battle. He unmasked the corpse to learn that it was an older version of himself. He initially resisted the call to put on the Nightwatch suit and become a superhero as he believed if he never put on the suit, he could escape his future death. Trench eventually relented and finally gave in to becoming Nightwatch. I'm not sure how this particular story would be incorporated into Spider-Man: Homecoming, but maybe Marvel and Sony are reinventing the character (as the comics have), or its also possible the character could show up in the inevitable Homecoming sequel.

We know that Logan Marshall-Green and Donald Glover are both in the film, with neither of their roles having been disclosed. Nightwatch is traditionally African American, so Glover could be a fit. We've been led to believe that whatever role Glover plays in Spider-Man: Homecoming is small, as he was able to make the scheduling work in between shooting his new show Atlanta which was also shooting in Georgia. It could be possible that Sony/Marvel are planting the seeds for Maximum Carnage movie.Also of note, a dark R-rated Spawn movie is also in development elsewhere.

Spider-Man: Homecoming Set Photos and Videos

As for the set photos and set videos I teased in the opening, here you go:

Spider-Man: Homecoming hits theaters on July 7th, 2017.

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